In the field of production intermediates of organosilicon chemistry, a cyclic silane compound is one of the important starting materials.
Heretofore, for example, decamethylcyclopentasilane is obtained as a by-product in the production of chained polysilanes or cyclohexasilanes by a dechlorination reaction of dimethyldichlorosilane using an alkali metal or alkali earth metal, so that both yield and purity are low.
As an alternative process, there is known a process for synthesizing decamethylcyclopentasilane by pyrolyzing a chained polysilane under an inert gas atmosphere but both yield and purity are also low by this process.
As a process which dissolves these disadvantages, Patent Document 1 describes a process for producing decamethylcyclopentasilane where poly(dimethylsilylene) is continuously transferred into and passed through a heated vacant tube under an inert gas atmosphere to effect pyrolysis.
However, the process also has a problem that a strict control of reaction time is required since decamethylcyclopentasilane formed may be pyrolized when the reaction time is prolonged.
Moreover, heretofore, a cyclic carbosilane compound which is important as a production intermediate for organosilicon polymers, especially, a precursor for chained polycarbosilanes, has been mainly produced by ring closure through a dechlorination reaction of terminal chlorosilyl groups of a halosilane compound using an alkali metal or an alkali earth metal, as shown in the following scheme (Non-Patent Document 1).

However, this process has a problem that the number of carbon atoms is larger than the number of silicon atoms and hence the process only synthesizes those having low silicon content.
On the other hand, it is also known that a cyclic carbosilane is produced by metathesis of a silicon-silicon bond of a cyclic disilane having a low molecular weight using a palladium catalyst (Patent Document 2). However, the process is limited to the production of a macrocyclic carbosilane.